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20000617 CasualtiesOfWar
Casualties of War Role Call Kill'Dar 9th/3rd Elf Wizard/Fighter Rick DiRicco Colin 12th Human Fighter Jim Yonemura Kieran 7th/4th Half-Elf Cleric/Wizard Ray Chiang Grackle 6th/5th Half-Elf Fighter/Rogue Mark Whisler Prince Donner 6th/5rd Human Fighter/Wizard John Speck Travian 8th Human Paladin Robert Giedt Fingle 3rd/7th Gnome Cleric/Wizard Richard Jacobsen Session Summary Robert shows up late. "Do we have a plan?" Considering all their options, the group eventually decides to head back to the gatehouse to rest. In order to fly everyone back, Fingle shrinks Ashlun. Along the way back, Colin and Grackle notice that the fire and smoke is virtually nonexistent back at the inner keep. As the party flies in, the Aquitanian troops are fully contained in the city and the gatehouse is closed. The orcs outside the walls of the city are still mobilizing, but staying far out of bowshot range from the walls. Looking back in the harbor, there appear to be no ships. As the group enters the gatehouse, they see Hagal issuing orders. He appears to be badly wounded. Two of the buildings near the gatehouse have been converted into a field hospital. The majority of the Aqutanian forces are near the gatehouse. The Black Lions and heavy infantry are nowhere near the gatehouse and are assumed to be out in the street fighting in the city. As the group attempts to sit down, the people appear to get out of the way. In the meantime, Donner: Colin, why don't you find out the status from Hagal? Colin: Yes, my lord. Donner: Kill'Dar, I know that your ring has virtually unlimited healing ability once per person. Perhaps the best thing to do would be to allocate a fixed amount of time to perform this healing. Kill'Dar: I was thinking the same thing. Donner: Let's plan to start resting within the hour. Colin and Kill'Dar approaches Hagal. Hagal: Well, the reports are kind of sketchy. It looks so far like we're making good progress. It looks like we won't be able to secure the city. We might be able to take possession of the city, but not secure it in the next three hours. Kill'Dar: Hagal: I still haven't heard that we control all the walls yet. Colin: Maybe if I inform the prince about that, we might be able to help with that. Hagal: Frankly, I'm worried about what's going to come out of the keep after nightfall. I'm not worried about a few orcs. What do you have to report about that? Colin: Well, Donner and Grackle can report about that after they get settled in. Kill'Dar: Have you found any tunnels? Hagal: It's all been street fighting. We've been far too occupied to be sending people looking inside buildings. Colin: Are there any of your subcommanders that you haven't heard from that you're worried about. Hagal: Well, all of them. I was hoping that we'd have more progress by then. I was really hoping that we'd have secured the inner keep. I'd like to secure that last bit of area around the inner keep. Colin: My lord, Hagal would like to find out what sort of information we gathered about the keep. I think it's best that you and Grackle go brief him. Donner: Very well. Don't lose our spot here. Donner and Grackle go up to talk to Hagal. He appears to be talking to a man wielding a sword, but wearing new armor. Hagal: I want you to get all of them into a secure spot and I want them to be ready to move by nightfall. Donner: We have information about how the keep is structured. Grackle scouted it out. (To Grackle) Why don't you tell him what you found? Grackle: (Reports on findings) Donner: I feel that most of their activities are below ground. The above ground forces seem to be mostly orogs and warriors. Hagal: It sounds like there are vicious forces there. It sounds like a meat grinder. Donner: Our main worry is... Hagal: The demon? Donner: Well, I was mainly wondering if we could fight the forces that come outside to fight us. Hagal: I would guess that the tunnels may reach beyond the keep, but definitely not beyond the castle. Fortunately, it sounds like what they've got isn't enough to take what we've got here. Donner: I'm concerned about winning the battle. Hagal: I wouldn't worry so much about that. From the reports that I've heard, we're delivering 4 or 5 casualties. Hagal: This is just an idea. I don't see us taking that keep and keeping the forces we need to go down the river. Would you be willing to offer terms of surrender? Donner: I don't know. Hagal: Would you be willing to let them go in exchange for securing the rest of the city? Donner: (Thinking) Hmmm... Hagal: Is there anything you can think of to make them accept surrender terms? I'd be willing to make the tradeoffs in order to secure the inner keep. Donner: Some archers perhaps? Grackle: I don't think that the archers will make much difference. I think killing the demon would send a message. Donner: XXX Hagal: I think a show of force would be in order. I don't know your full capabilities, but if you can make a show of force and show them that they're not safe where they are, I think they'll surrender. By the way, we've got all the spellcasters in one building over there. If you've got any protective abilities to use there, then I'd appreciate it. All our eggs are in one basket. Donner: We've brought back Ashlun. He's got some amazing detection abilities. Hagal: He's a good man. Donner: (Thinking: Good man, better items) Kill'Dar goes to the hospital area. It looks like most of the Black Lions are in decent condition, but the area is not as densely populated as he expected. Kill'Dar turns his healing attention to the critically wounded among the normal Aquitanian troops. He manages to revive many of them (nearly half). Conversation: In particular, there is one important Colonel that would be good to have back up, and Kill'Dar and Fingle get him awake. As Kill'Dar continues to heal wounds and cure poison, stories of the "Noble Elf Who Heals" begins to spread among the troops. Donner, Grackle, Travian, Colin: (Discussion about attacking the keep, reservations about traps) Conversation: Kill'Dar and Fingle with soldier about stupid orcs and orogs. Conversation: Apparently, there is another spellcaster outside the wall. He looked like a orog, but he was wearing a skull necklace. He apparently had three really tough orogs around him--on par with the Black Lion elite. We saw him cast spells on troops that got them on their feet ("I'm sure they were dead"). He didn't seem to give any orders. He raised some zombies. Grackle goes and fetches the hospital dudes. Donner: Hagal suggested that we should offer those in the inner keep terms of surrender. However, until we can prove our strength to them, we need to Kill'Dar: Which is more important to do XXX or YYY? Donner: Our mission is to keep reinforcements from reaching the city. However, we need to still come up with a show of force. It would be best if we could do it sooner than later. The overall plan would be to do this show of force and offer them safe passage out of the city in the next two hours. Kill'Dar: YYY Donner: Night time is their time. If they can convince them to leave before nightfall we might be safer in this part of the city. They will be inclined to cut their losses and leave. Kieran: Do you have an idea for this show of force? Colin: We had two ideas. The first one is to knock the gate of the keep. The other idea was that we take out the demon that they bound into the wall. (Lots more discussion) Hagal: We could move all the Black Lions to take out the orcs around the inner keep. Donner: What would that cost us to do? Hagal: We wouldn't have the city secured. At best, we might have them contained. Donner begins dispensing orders. Eventually the plan is to use the scroll of Elemental Summoning to summon earth elementals to break down the gate and attack whatever inside. While discussing the plan, Kieran begins carving a Rune of Spell Immunity. Unfortunately, he fails to create the rune. Kill'Dar and Grackle walk up near the trapped area. Grackle fails to hide sufficiently and a dozen arrows fly in their direction from the walls of the inner keep. Both are hit. Combat ensues: Round 1: Kill'Dar pulls out the scroll and summons 4 Earth Elementals. More arrows fly towards the group, but none hit. Grackle turns gaseous and moves forward. Round 2: Kill'Dar sends three of the elementals towards the gate and orders one back towards him. As the first three elementals enter the trapped area, the entire area collapses and the elementals fall into the pit, and there is a giant splash of water. The last elemental attacks the barn next to Kill'Dar. Inside, he sees several horses. Grackle turns solid and continues forward. Several doors and shutters fly open in the houses along the main street. Orcs come out. Round 3: Grackle turns gaseous. Kill'Dar orders the elementals to climb out of the pit and attack the gate. The remaining elemental takes out an orc. Fingle Color Sprays the three orcs across the street. The remaining orcs bottle the party in the alleyway. Round 4: Grackle continues to move toward the keep. The elemental back with the party chases after the orcs engaging the party. The remaining three elementals attempt to bash the door open, but fail. Fingle turns gaseous and Colin steps up and kills the two orcs blocking the alleyway. The remaining orcs flee back into the building, with Round 5: Grackle continues to move up. The remaining elemental sits there while the other three damage the door, which begins to buckle. Colin moves out of the alleyway, and the rest of the group follows. Fingle pulls out the flying carpet, and the rest of the group gets on the carpet. Round 6: Grackle continues to move up. The three elementals continue to do more damage to the door, nearly breaking through. Colin focuses. Fingle steers the carpet towards the inner keep. Kieran and Donner focus. Round 7: Colin strings his bow. Kieran casts a Protection on himself. The elementals blow through the rest of the outer door. Grackle gets up to the alleyway and peers in. Fingle lowers the carpet. As the elementals enter, several ballista bolts are fired and one of the elementals is wounded. Round 8: Colin waits. Kieran moves towards the front of the carpet. The elementals appeared to be stalled. Fingle steers the carpet forward and the glyphs triggers--a lightning surge hits Kieran, who saves. Round 9: Kieran casts Resistance on Donner. Kill'Dar orders the elementals to attack the walls around. Donner jumps down and casts Lightning Bolt, killing several. Round 10: Round 11: Round 12: Round 13: Round 14: Kieran waits to heal Kill'Dar. Fingle is unheld and hits the hill giant attacking Kill'Dar with a Melf's Acid Arrow. Grackel oozes through the bars and becomes solid. Donner attacks the other hill giant. Kill'Dar dispels the hold on Colin, but is dropped. Round 15: Colin attacks the hill giant and fells it, but missed the demon. Kieran heals Kill'Dar. Travian begins wandering. Donner attacks nearby orogs and kills one. He then tells Grackle to restrain Travian. Kill'Dar touches the demon with the ring, but fails to overcome its spell resistance. Fingle throws holy water and hits the demon for 5 pts. The demon casts mirror image again. Round 16: Colin dispels two images and hits the demon once. Kieran casts Dispel Magic and removes two of the images. Grackle dispels the last image, but lets Travian continue to wander off. Fingle casts Dancing Lights around the demon. The demon attacks Kill'Dar and hits. Round 17: Colin pounds the demon which rains down on us, burning into us, and burrowing into us. Kildar heals the damage, we flee Foes Fought Base Experience: